The Most Famous

ATHLETES from Switzerland

This page contains a list of the greatest Swiss Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 6,025 Athletes, 37 of which were born in Switzerland. This makes Switzerland the birth place of the 30th most number of Athletes behind Austria, and Belgium.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Swiss Athletes of all time. This list of famous Swiss Athletes is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Swiss Athletes.

1. Marina Doria (b. 1935)

With an HPI of 59.05, Marina Doria is the most famous Swiss Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages on wikipedia.

Princess Marina of Savoy (née Marina Ricolfi-Doria, born 12 February 1935) is a Swiss former water skier. She competed three times at the Water Ski World Championships winning gold medals in 1955 and in 1957. She won the overall title in the European Water Ski Championships consecutively from 1953 to 1956 and won five Swiss national titles. She was inducted into the International Water Ski Federation Hall of Fame in 1991. She is the widow of Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, the son of the last king and queen of Italy, Umberto II and Marie José. They had one son, Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice.

2. Gabriela Andersen-Schiess (b. 1945)

With an HPI of 56.47, Gabriela Andersen-Schiess is the 2nd most famous Swiss Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Gabriela "Gaby" Andersen-Schiess (born 20 May 1945 in Zürich) is a former Swiss long-distance runner who participated in the first women's Olympic marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Though living in Sun Valley, Idaho, and working as a ski instructor at the time, Andersen-Schiess represented Switzerland in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

3. Pierre Musy (1910 - 1990)

With an HPI of 52.52, Pierre Musy is the 3rd most famous Swiss Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Pierre Musy (25 August 1910 – 21 November 1990) was a Swiss bobsledder and horse rider. Competing in the four-man bobsled event he won a gold medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics and a silver at the FIBT World Championships 1935. As an equestrian he competed in the three-day eventing at the 1948 Summer Olympics and finished 32nd individually and fourth with the Swiss team. Musy was the son of Jean-Marie Musy, who was the President of the Swiss Confederation in 1925 and in 1930. He graduated from Collège Saint-Michel and from the University of Bern with a degree in law. From 1931 to 1939 he worked at local and federal banks in Geneva. He took various military posts from 1938 through 1960s, and served as a Swiss military attaché in the Middle East (1951–1954) and European countries (1954–1961). Between 1963 and 1967 he headed the Swiss Military Intelligence Service, and after that was appointed as President of FC Fribourg.

4. Gottfried Diener (1926 - 2015)

With an HPI of 51.87, Gottfried Diener is the 4th most famous Swiss Athlete. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Gottfried Diener (November 1, 1926 – May 26, 2015) was a Swiss bobsledder who competed in the mid-1950s. He won the gold medal in the four-man event at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Diener also won two gold medals in the four-man event at the FIBT World Championships, winning them in 1954 and 1955. He also served as president of the International Crossbow Shooting Union from 1965 to 1999. Diener was named an honorary president of the organization in 2006.

5. Joseph Benz (1944 - 2021)

With an HPI of 49.48, Joseph Benz is the 5th most famous Swiss Athlete. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Joseph "Josef" or "Sepp" Benz (20 May 1944 – 5 February 2021) was a Swiss bobsledder who competed from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won four medals with one gold (Two-man: 1980), two silvers (Four-man: 1976, 1980), and one bronze (Two-man: 1976).

6. Robert Alt (1927 - 2017)

With an HPI of 49.26, Robert Alt is the 6th most famous Swiss Athlete. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Robert Alt (2 January 1927 – 4 December 2017) was a Swiss bobsledder who competed in the mid-1950s. He won a gold medal in the four-man event at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Alt also won a gold medal in the four-man event at the 1955 FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz.

7. Hermann Barrelet (1879 - 1964)

With an HPI of 49.08, Hermann Barrelet is the 7th most famous Swiss Athlete. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Hermann Joseph Barrelet de Ricou (25 September 1879 – 24 April 1964) was a Swiss-born French rower. He won gold medals in single sculls at the 1900 Summer Olympics and 1901 European Championships. Barrelet continued to compete in single sculls into his thirties, but had better achievements in team events, winning European titles in the men's eight (1909) and double sculls (1913, with Anatol Peresselenzeff).

People

Pantheon has 120 people classified as Swiss athletes born between 1864 and 2002. Of these 120, 99 (82.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Swiss athletes include Marina Doria, Gabriela Andersen-Schiess, and Werner Günthör. The most famous deceased Swiss athletes include Pierre Musy, Gottfried Diener, and Joseph Benz. As of April 2024, 83 new Swiss athletes have been added to Pantheon including Marina Doria, Pierre Musy, and Charles Bouvier.